Kwentuhan At Wing Luke: Sharing stories Of Filipino heritage

In front of a rapt audience of old and young people alike, Manang Nelia Diaz recounted her
experience emigrating to the United States after graduating as a registered pharmacist in the
Philippines.

“I thought after the application, I can go immediately to the United States. But they told me,
‘Wait for your visa number’,” Diaz said. “I spent 19 years waiting for that visa number— 19 years.”

A marriage and three children later, the U.S. embassy finally sent an approval letter for her visa.
She ignored it, as well as the one that came after. The third letter was a warning: “Are you still
interested in going to the United States?”

“I showed it to the president of my company and he advised me, ‘Nelia, it’s really hard for us from
a Third World country to go to the United States,’” Diaz continued. “‘Please grab the opportunity,
not only for you, but for your kids.’ So I grabbed the opportunity to be here.”

In celebration of Filipino American History month, the Filipino Community of Seattle welcomed
attendees to the first Kwentuhan / Storytime, an intergenerational storytelling event, at the Wing
Luke Museum on Oct. 25. While there are no plans to make this a recurring program, FCS also hosts
other storytelling-themed gatherings throughout the year.

Diaz was one of three community elders invited to tell her story to the crowd.

Filipino immigrants have a long history with Seattle. After the 1903 Pensionado Act, middle-class Filipino students were allowed to migrate to the United States to study at American universities. The manong generation of the 1920s and 30s brought the first major wave of Filipino immigrants— mostly young men seeking work. As more immigrants settled in Seattle over the next decades, some found themselves staying and starting families. Among them was Diaz, along with the other guest speakers Manong Norman David and Manang Virgie Palisoc.

Filipino Community of Seattle, or FCS, is a nonprofit organization that has been operating in
Seattle since 1927 as one of the first Filipiné organizations in the nation. A committee of
students at the University of Washington, which at the time had the highest enrollment of Filipino
students in the nation, sought to purchase a clubhouse. They later named it the Filipino Community
Clubhouse.

After the Philippine Commonwealth Government’s inauguration in Manila, disparate Filipino
organizations across Seattle merged into a single organization, the Philippine Commonwealth Council of Seattle. Together, they launched a two-day celebration in November 1935 with their newly united community. The organization was officially incorporated afterwards, and changed its name to the Filipino Community of Seattle in 1946 following the Philippines independence.

FCS organized Kwentuhan / Storytime to provide a space for Seattle’s younger generations of
Filipino Americans to connect with their parents, grandparents and families through their unique
cultural history.

The Tagalog word “kwentuhan” translates to “tell a story,” or “chit-chat.” The event was based
around exactly that— attendees were encouraged to bring a friend or family member to share stories
with.

Guest speaker Ruby de Luna, a reporter for KUOW, facilitated the interviews with the elders up on
the stage to demonstrate her most effective interviewing techniques. Before sitting down with her
interviewees, she advised the audience to ask open-ended questions, and listen as actively as they
could.

Intergenerational storytelling helps bridge the gap between different age groups in a community,
and it’s a way to preserve family history, cultural traditions, and connect people who may
otherwise be isolated.

“It’s important for younger generations to understand where their parents or their elders came from, so they have an understanding of what posterity means,” attendee Shea Formanes said. “To
understand who they are and the history and culture they’re inheriting. They can expand on that and
pass it down to their children, if they choose to have them.

“Having that conversation and that relationship between inter-generational groups is really
important because that’s the only way that progress can be made, and maybe old wounds can be
healed,” Formanes said. “New relationships between community members can not only expand, but grow and blossom.”

Elders brought stories of what it was like to live in and emigrate from the Philippines. With their
younger relatives who had only ever known the United States, they shared memories of food, culture
and history. In turn, younger generations shared their experiences, struggles and stories of being
Filipino-American.

Kwentuhan / Storytime was not only a forum for sharing stories. At the event vendors sold art,
jewelry and books. Peter Bacho, an award-winning Filipino-American author and lecturer, signed
copies of his novels “Cebu” and “Uncle Rico’s Encore” at his booth. The internationally known
author was born and raised in Seattle..

Children’s book author Annie Cheng sat with her work on display: Ube Books, a celebration of the
Filipino nursing community. Her titular character and hero, Nurse Ube, rides a pedicab and sings
karaoke in colorful settings reminiscent of Cheng’s childhood. Ube takes her name and appearance
from the purple yam used as a staple ingredient in Filipino cuisine.

“I moved here when I was 19, so a lot of my formative years were in the Philippines. I think for
people like me that grew up there and speak the language, we have a different perspective about our
culture,” Cheng said. “The memories that I have are there, and I’m able to put it in a book and
show it to the children that grow up here.”

FCS has since expanded into a social service organization that provides senior services, affordable
housing, youth development programs, arts and culture programs and basic needs programs that
distribute food and warm meals.

The community center based in Beacon Hill offers a wide range of activities for their seniors,
including exercise classes, weekly lunches and mental-health support. In addition, they host an
after school youth program for kindergarten through 12th grade, alongside STEM-based classes in the
nearby Innovation Learning Center.

“In 2019, I had depression. My doctor advised me, ‘Why not go to your local community?’ So I
volunteered at the Filipino community and that became my second home,” Diaz said. “I enjoyed my
first job at the Filipino Community as a senior coordinator.”

Kwentuhan / Storytime concluded with 15 spare minutes for guests to tell stories to one another,
whether they had met before or not.

“I hope people will get excited about finding stories. We think we know our families,” de Luna
said, as attendees began to filter out of the room. “But I’m hoping that they will learn other
stories that they weren’t aware of, and I hope they become excited about it.”